Longreads Best of 2016: Crime Reporting

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.

我们请几位作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。

Here, the best in crime reporting.

这里有最好的犯罪报道。

* * *

** **

Jessica Lussenhop

杰西卡·卢森霍普

Senior staff writer for BBC News.

BBC 新闻的资深撰稿人。

## Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom To Be Murdered (Michelle Dean, BuzzFeed News)

## Dee Dee 希望她的女儿生病，Gypsy 希望她的妈妈被谋杀（米歇尔·迪恩，BuzzFeed 新闻）

This heart-breaking case of one of—if not the—longest case of Munchausen by proxy is beautifully reported and written with precision by Michelle Dean.

这起令人心碎的案件是孟乔森最长的代理案件之一（如果不是的话），由米歇尔·迪恩（Michelle Dean）精彩地报道和精确地撰写。

The death of Dee Dee Blancharde, as orchestrated by her adult daughter Gypsy, was horrifying and shocking, but Dean paints a detailed portrait that really allows the characters and their inner lives to emerge from the sheer horror of the crimes.

迪迪·布兰查德 (Dee Dee Blancharde) 的死亡是由她已成年的女儿吉普赛 (Gypsy) 精心策划的，令人恐惧和震惊，但迪恩描绘了一幅详细的肖像，真正让人物及其内心生活从犯罪的纯粹恐怖中浮现出来。

Dean reveals that there was so much more to this story than what came out in breaking news reports—this piece was fascinating, troubling and at the end of the day, impossible to forget.

迪恩透露，这个故事的内容比突发新闻报道的内容要多得多——这篇文章令人着迷、令人不安，但最终却无法忘记。

Ben Montgomery

本·蒙哥马利

Enterprise reporter for the Tampa Bay Times and author of two books.

《坦帕湾时报》的企业记者和两本书的作者。

## Framed (Christopher Goffard, LA Times)

## 陷害（Christopher Goffard，洛杉矶时报）

This six-part serial narrative was the most compelling story I read this year.

这个六部分的连续叙述是我今年读过的最引人注目的故事。

Packed with plot twists and glorious cliffhangers, Goffard tells the strange story of husband-and-wife lawyers who attempt to frame a PTA mom at their child’s school by planting illegal drugs in her car.

戈法德充满了曲折的情节和扣人心弦的悬念，讲述了一对律师夫妇试图在孩子的学校陷害一名家长会妈妈的奇怪故事，他们在她的车里放置了非法毒品。

Their “perfect crime” unravels slowly as detectives pull strings.

随着侦探们的幕后操纵，他们的“完美犯罪”慢慢揭开面纱。

As Goffard writes, it was “an inexplicable crime that seemed to throb weirdly at the nexus of suburban psychosis and class privilege.” Bonus points to the LA Times, which rolled out the series over the course of a few weeks rather than dumping it online all at once.

正如戈法德所写，这是“一种莫名其妙的犯罪，似乎在郊区精神病和阶级特权的联系中奇怪地跳动。”值得一提的是《洛杉矶时报》，它在几周内推出了该系列节目，而不是一次性将其全部发布到网上。

## A Positive Life: How a Son Survived Being Injected with HIV by His Father (Justin Heckert, GQ)

## 积极的生活：儿子如何在父亲注射艾滋病毒后幸存下来（Justin Heckert，GQ）

In 1998, a phlebotomist named Brian Stewart was sentenced to life in prison for injecting his own 10-month-old son with HIV-infected blood.

1998 年，一位名叫布莱恩·斯图尔特 (Brian Stewart) 的抽血医生因给自己 10 个月大的儿子注射感染艾滋病毒的血液而被判处终身监禁。

By age seven, few gave the boy any chance to live.

到了七岁时，很少有人给这个男孩任何生存的机会。

He had fevers, a swollen liver, chronic ear infections, no immune system.

他发烧、肝脏肿胀、慢性耳部感染，而且没有免疫系统。

He had flat-lined twice.

他有过两次扁线。

His mother even picked out a suit for the boy’s funeral.

他的母亲甚至为男孩的葬礼挑选了一套西装。

Against the odds, the boy they called Badger survived and has led a remarkable life.

尽管困难重重，这个被他们称为獾的男孩活了下来，并过上了非凡的生活。

With elegance and empathy, Heckert tells the story of the inconceivable crime and explores who Badger has become in the years since.

赫克特以优雅和同理心讲述了这起不可思议的犯罪故事，并探讨了獾在这些年里变成了什么样的人。

Michael J.

迈克尔·J。

Mooney

穆尼

Dallas-based freelance writer, co-director of the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference.

达拉斯自由作家，梅伯恩文学非小说会议联合主任。

## A Positive Life: How a Son Survived Being Injected with HIV by His Father (Justin Heckert, GQ)

## 积极的生活：儿子如何在父亲注射艾滋病毒后幸存下来（Justin Heckert，GQ）

So many of my favorite crime stories aren’t just about a criminal act—or really about the criminals themselves.

我最喜欢的许多犯罪故事不仅仅是关于犯罪行为，或者实际上是关于罪犯本身。

Some of the best stories are about the survivors, and the various extreme aspects of the human condition revealed by their lives.

一些最好的故事是关于幸存者的，以及他们的生活所揭示的人类状况的各种极端方面。

This story, about an amazing young man who goes by “Badger,” is one of those.

这个故事是关于一个被称为“獾”的了不起的年轻人的故事就是其中之一。

When he was an infant, Badger’s deranged phlebotomist father injected him with HIV.

当巴杰还是个婴儿时，他精神错乱的抽血医生父亲给他注射了艾滋病毒。

Heckert’s story, relayed with deft and beautiful prose, recounts not only the act and the subsequent investigation and trial, but the lifelong physical and psychological ramifications for Badger, an unbelievably inspiring human being.

赫克特的故事以巧妙而优美的散文讲述，不仅讲述了这一行为以及随后的调查和审判，还讲述了巴杰这一令人难以置信的鼓舞人心的人一生的身心影响。

## The Reckoning (Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly)

## 清算（Pamela Colloff，德克萨斯月刊）

This story is also about the long-term fallout from an unthinkable, heinous crime.

这个故事还讲述了一场难以想象的令人发指的犯罪所造成的长期后果。

In 1966, Claire Wilson was an 18-year-old college freshman at the University of Texas when Charles Whitman opened fire from the top of the school’s iconic clock tower.

1966 年，查尔斯·惠特曼 (Charles Whitman) 从学校标志性的钟楼顶部向克莱尔·威尔逊 (Claire Wilson) 开枪，当时克莱尔·威尔逊 (Claire Wilson) 是德克萨斯大学 18 岁的大学新生。

Claire was pregnant and in love at the time.

克莱尔当时怀孕了并且正在恋爱。

Then the sniper’s bullets ripped through both her flesh and the fabric of her life.

然后狙击手的子弹撕裂了她的肉体和她的生活。

In cinematic fashion, this story traces the many ways that day affected her over the next 50 years, through a recovery, a marriage, an adoption, and a decades-long search for truth and understanding.

这个故事以电影的方式讲述了那天在接下来的 50 年里对她产生的多种影响：康复、婚姻、收养以及长达数十年的对真理和理解的探索。

Reyhan Harmanci

雷汉·哈曼奇

Editor at First Look Media; co-writer, with Michelle Dean, of Crime Syndicate, a true crime newsletter.

First Look Media 编辑；与米歇尔·迪恩共同撰写了《犯罪辛迪加》，这是一份真正的犯罪通讯。

## Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom To Be Murdered (Michelle Dean, BuzzFeed News)

## Dee Dee 希望她的女儿生病，Gypsy 希望她的妈妈被谋杀（米歇尔·迪恩，BuzzFeed 新闻）

So, let’s get this out of the way: Michelle Dean’s masterful examination of a young woman who helped kill her mother for some very complicated reasons is already on a lot of people’s lists, and deserves to be on more.

所以，让我们先把这个问题抛在一边：米歇尔·迪恩对一位年轻女子的精湛审视，这位年轻女子因一些非常复杂的原因帮助杀害了她的母亲，已经出现在很多人的名单上，而且值得出现在更多的名单上。

## In Death, an Artist and a Young Woman Meet (Sarah Weinman, The Guardian)

## 在死亡中，一位艺术家和一位年轻女子相遇（莎拉·温曼，《卫报》）

Another friend to crime readers everywhere, Sarah Weinman, published a fascinating story on how the murder of a young woman influenced artist Ana Mendieta, who suffered a tragic fate herself.

另一位世界各地犯罪读者的朋友莎拉·温曼（Sarah Weinman）发表了一篇引人入胜的故事，讲述了一名年轻女子的谋杀案如何影响了艺术家安娜·门迭塔（Ana Mendieta），而她自己也遭受了悲惨的命运。

## The Mastermind (Evan Ratliff, The Atavist)

## 策划者（埃文·拉特利夫，返祖者）

It’s not a surprise to readers that Evan Ratliff’s incredible Mastermind series on a kingpin-turned-snitch is being adapted into some kind of filmed entertainment.

埃文·拉特利夫 (Evan Ratliff) 的《主谋》系列讲述了一个由头目变成告密者的令人难以置信的主谋系列被改编成某种电影娱乐节目，这对读者来说并不奇怪。

It was sprawling and weird and well worth binging on after a huge holiday meal.

它庞大而奇怪，非常值得在一顿丰盛的节日大餐后大吃一顿。

## Trump Boasts About His Philanthropy.

## 特朗普吹嘘他的慈善事业。

But His Giving Falls Short of His Words.

但他的付出却言而无信。

(David Fahrenthold, The Washington Post)

（大卫·法伦霍尔德，《华盛顿邮报》）

One of my favorite ongoing crime series was David Fahrenthold at the Washington Post digging into Trump’s charity.

我最喜欢的正在进行的犯罪系列之一是《华盛顿邮报》的大卫·法伦霍尔德（David Fahrenthold）深入研究特朗普的慈善事业。

It was a slow burn but by the time we got to the giant portraits bought with the non-profit’s money, I was all in.

这是一个缓慢的过程，但当我们看到用非营利组织的钱购买的巨型肖像时，我全身心投入。

## Apocalypse Meow: How a Cult That Believes Cats Are Divine Beings Ended Up in Tennessee (Bob Smietana, Nashville Scene)

## 天启喵：相信猫是神圣存在的邪教如何在田纳西州结束（鲍勃·斯米塔纳，纳什维尔场景）

Finally, a cult cat story that pal Liz Lopatto brought to my attention.

最后，朋友莉兹·洛帕托（Liz Lopatto）引起我注意的一个邪教猫故事。

It’s wonderful and a great reminder that alt-weekly stories are often the best stories.

这很精彩，也很好地提醒我们，另类每周的故事往往是最好的故事。

(See Sydney Brownstone’s incredible Seattle Stranger reporting on a rapist posing as a porn recruiter, which led to his arrest.) Happy holidays, y’all.

（参见悉尼·布朗斯通令人难以置信的《西雅图陌生人》报道，一名强奸犯冒充色情招聘人员，导致他被捕。）大家节日快乐。

Bradford Pearson

布拉德福德·皮尔逊

Managing editor at Southwest: the Magazine; writer.

《西南：杂志》执行编辑；作家。

## Innocents (Rachel Nolan, Harper’s)

##《无辜者》（雷切尔·诺兰，《哈珀杂志》）

I immediately drop everything whenever Harper’s publishes a new story by Rachel Nolan.

每当《哈泼斯》杂志出版雷切尔·诺兰的新故事时，我都会立即放弃一切。

(Luckily this is pretty intermittent, as she’s working on her Ph.D. in addition to writing.

（幸运的是，这是间歇性的，因为她除了写作之外还在攻读博士学位。

Slacker.) Last year it was her report on the Dominican Republic’s plan to deport hundreds of thousands of Haitians.

懒鬼。）去年，这是她关于多米尼加共和国计划驱逐数十万海地人的报告。

This year it’s a blood-roiling walk through El Salvador’s abortion laws, which bring together the medical and legal communities in an effort to not only prosecute women who’ve had abortions, but often prosecute women who’ve actually just had miscarriages.

今年，萨尔瓦多的堕胎法令人热血沸腾，该法汇集了医学界和法律界，不仅起诉堕胎过的妇女，而且经常起诉实际上刚刚流产的妇女。

Nolan expertly weaves poverty, religion, geography, feminism, and gang culture into the story of Flor Arely Sánchez, who “left a trail of blood down the mountain.” No story made me angrier this year, which, considering what happened on November 8, is saying something.

诺兰巧妙地将贫困、宗教、地理、女权主义和帮派文化融入到“在山下留下血迹”的弗洛尔·阿雷利·桑切斯的故事中。今年没有任何故事让我更愤怒，考虑到 11 月 8 日发生的事情，这说明了一些事情。

## Inside Italy’s ultras: the Dangerous Fans Who Control the Game (Tobias Jones, The Guardian)

## 意大利超级球迷内部：控制比赛的危险球迷（托比亚斯·琼斯，《卫报》）

Any story that includes the line “who died when a nautical rocket fired by an ultra flew the length of the pitch and hit him in the head,” automatically becomes a Best of Whatever Year contender for me.

任何包含“当超级跑车发射的航海火箭飞过球场并击中他的头部时死亡”这句台词的故事，都会自动成为我的年度最佳奖的竞争者。

(Admittedly, it’s a small detail about a well-beyond-tertiary character, but what a way to go: beer in hand, watching your favorite team, rocket searing toward your head.) Through the lens of one particularly ill-fated fan’s life, Tobias Jones details organized crime’s infiltration of Italian soccer, and the impossible task of then trying to extract them.

（诚​​然，这只是一个关于一个远超第三级角色的小细节，但这是一种多么好的方式：手里拿着啤酒，看着你最喜欢的球队，火箭冲向你的头。）托拜厄斯·琼斯通过一位不幸的球迷的生活镜头，详细描述了有组织犯罪对意大利足球的渗透，以及试图将他们解救出来的不可能完成的任务。

It’s a look into a world—sports, in the broader sense—that many of us look at as a release.

这是对世界（更广泛意义上的体育）的审视，我们许多人将其视为一种释放。

For many of the characters in this story, though, it’s all they have.

然而，对于这个故事中的许多角色来说，这就是他们所拥有的一切。

And they’ll fight to the death for it.

他们将为此奋斗至死。

Cheri Lucas Rowlands

切里·卢卡斯·罗兰兹

Story Wrangler, WordPress.com and Longreads

Story Wrangler、WordPress.com 和 Longreads

## Body on the Moor (Jon Manel, BBC News)

## 荒原上的尸体（Jon Manel，BBC 新闻）

I’m not naturally drawn to crime or detective stories, but this immersive BBC News story unfolded on my laptop screen like a suspenseful, well-paced movie.

我天生就不喜欢犯罪或侦探故事，但这个身临其境的 BBC 新闻故事在我的笔记本电脑屏幕上展开，就像一部悬疑、节奏紧凑的电影。

Manel’s “Body on the Moor” tells the tale of a man found dead last year in Saddleworth Moor, in Peak District National Park in Northern England — a cyclist found him in a peculiar position, in clothing inappropriate for a walk, and with no belongings or forms of identification.

马内尔的《荒原上的尸体》讲述了一名男子去年在英格兰北部峰区国家公园的萨德沃斯荒原被发现死亡的故事——一名骑自行车的人发现他处于一种特殊的位置，穿着不适合散步的衣服，没有任何物品或任何形式的身份证明。

Six months later, detectives across England still were unable to identify him — or figure out why he traveled 200 miles to die on the moor.

六个月后，英格兰各地的侦探仍然无法识别他的身份，也无法弄清楚他为何长途跋涉 200 英里死在荒原上。

Studying the maps, CCTV footage, photos, videos, and timelines while reading the story feels like you’re examining evidence alongside investigators.

在阅读故事的同时研究地图、闭路电视录像、照片、视频和时间线，感觉就像你在与调查人员一起检查证据。

It’s a curious case and an engrossing read.

这是一个奇怪的案例，也是一本引人入胜的读物。

Krista Stevens

克里斯塔·史蒂文斯

Editor, Automattic

自动编辑器

## Death by Fentanyl (Darren Foster, Cristina Costantini, Fusion)

## 芬太尼之死（达伦·福斯特、克里斯蒂娜·科斯坦蒂尼、Fusion）

If you thought “Breaking Bad” was fiction, you’d be mistaken.

如果你认为《绝命毒师》是虚构的，那你就错了。

At Fusion, Darren Foster and Cristina Costantini profile George Marquardt, a science prodigy and self-taught chemist.

在《Fusion》中，达伦·福斯特和克里斯蒂娜·科斯坦蒂尼介绍了乔治·马夸特，一位科学奇才和自学成才的化学家。

He cracked fentanyl’s chemical composition to make his own, with deadly consequences in the early ’90s.

他破解了芬太尼的化学成分，自行制造了芬太尼，这在 90 年代初造成了致命的后果。

What I loved about this piece is the penchant for the telling detail.

我喜欢这件作品的地方在于它对细节的偏爱。

The authors paint a portrait of a mad genius drug manufacturer who is unrepentant and sanguine; Marquardt built his own spectrometer to test the purity of his lethal concoctions but did not know how to turn his phone off and on.

作者描绘了一位疯狂的天才制药商的肖像，他顽固不化，乐观向上；马夸特建造了自己的光谱仪来测试他的致命混合物的纯度，但不知道如何关闭和打开手机。

## The First Time Texas Killed One of My Clients (Burke M.

## 德克萨斯州第一次杀死我的一位客户 (Burke M.

Butler, Texas Observer)

巴特勒，德克萨斯观察家）

Attorney Burke Butler meets the family of death-row murderer “Marvin,” to reconcile the boy who made peanut butter pancakes with the person who committed a multiple homicide before he was old enough to buy beer.

伯克·巴特勒律师会见了死囚杀人犯“马文”的家人，试图让那个做花生酱煎饼的男孩与那个在买啤酒之前犯下多起杀人案的人和解。

Marvin’s upbringing was troubled and Butler’s observations offer insight into Marvin’s path and untimely death.

马文的成长过程充满坎坷，巴特勒的观察让我们深入了解马文的人生道路和英年早逝。

His stepfather was violent, his mother was unstable.

他的继父很暴力，他的母亲情绪不稳定。

Marvin’s uncle Frank, on seeing a dead baby bird on the pavement outside the prison on execution day, said, “Sometimes they die young, and the others push them from the nest.” In Marvin’s case, it was both.

马文的叔叔弗兰克在行刑当天在监狱外的人行道上看到一只死去的小鸟，他说：“有时它们很早就死了，其他人把它们从鸟巢里推出去。”就马文而言，两者都是。

Sari Botton

纱丽波顿

Writer, contributing editor to Longreads, editorial director of the non-profit TMI Project, and owner of Kingston Writers’ Studio.

作家、Longreads 的特约编辑、非营利组织 TMI 项目的编辑总监以及 Kingston Writers’ Studio 的所有者。

## The Crotchgrabber (Mary Karr, The New Yorker)

## 胯部抢夺者（玛丽·卡尔，《纽约客》）

After she’s casually groped on the street in Manhattan, memoirist Mary Karr takes action.

回忆录作家玛丽·卡尔在曼哈顿街头随意摸索后，采取了行动。

She follows the guy and calls 911, and it results in him being arrested and spending a night at Riker’s Island.

她跟踪该男子并拨打了 911，结果他被捕并在赖克岛过夜。

It also leads her to learn, and report on, how common this sort of sexual assault is–a kind our president-elect bragged to Howard Stern about engaging in–and to try and understand the motivations and satisfactions of its perpegrators.

它还引导她了解并报告这种性侵犯的普遍性（我们的当选总统向霍华德·斯特恩吹嘘自己参与了这种性侵犯），并尝试了解犯罪者的动机和满足感。

See more from our Best of 2016 series

查看我们的 2016 年最佳系列的更多内容